He was a businessman instead of a designer, but as Apple CEO, Tim Cook also had to become far more of a politician than any of his predecessors. Here's how he started at Apple, ran the company, and will end his career.

Tim Cook was Apple's seventh CEO, he was the longest-serving, and he was only the third who wasn't fired. Then it's true that like every Apple CEO before him, he was white, male, and a similar age, but in business terms, he was also the most transformative of them all.

That includes being more business and financially transforming than Steve Jobs . Where Cook will never be as much remembered for products as Jobs still is, he was more of a businessman and, latterly, vastly more of a politician .

It is because of Tim Cook that Apple became the most valuable company in the world.…